November 09, 2007

"When I talk about belief, why do you always assume I'm talking about God?" What Serenity believes in

A couple months back Onelowerlight Rising, a Mormon blog, posted a lengthy attack on the SF-western hybrid Firefly under the title "Why Firefly is Not Good Science Fiction."Firefly, the story of a group of interplanetary outlaws aboard a ship named Serenity, was the unfairly-cancelled brainchild of Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and, in your humble reviewer's opinion, was one of the best SF shows in the history of television). Among Onelowerlight's list of complaints was the manner in which the show handled religion. He specifically cites a scene in which River, a mentally scarred superhuman, "edits" the Bible of Shepherd Book, the show's resident preacher. "It's broken," River complains, "it doesn't make sense." Book's reply: "It's not about making sense. It's about believing in something, and letting that belief be real enough to change your life. It's about faith. You don't fix faith, River. It fixes you." Onelowerlight complains that this misrepresents what faith means for the faithful:

He basically says that people don't believe in religion because it makes sense, they believe in it because they need something to believe in... However, this neglects something very important--from the believer's point of view, it does make sense! Joss Whedon doesn't show that point of view at all!

Had Onelowerlight seen Serenity, the film sequel to Firefly, he likely wouldn't have been too pleased with the way Shepherd Book presents faith there, either. At one point, Book urges Mal Reynolds, the leader of Serenity's crew, "I don't care what you believe—just believe it." I've seen several reviewers complain about this apparently content-less faith: what is belief that's not belief in something? But this approach ignores the context in which these pronouncements are made. Serenity has a lot to say about what its characters believe—their faith has content spelled out by their actions.

In Serenity, Mal's crew is on the run from an interplanetary government. They've been harboring River, and the Alliance scientists who gave her her superpowers want her back. They turn to Shepherd Book both for shelter and for advice. When Book tells Mal that he'll need "belief" to get him through, Mal is displeased: "I ain't looking for help from on high. That's a long wait for a train don't come." Book's response, at first glance, communicates nothing: "When I talk about belief, why do you always assume I'm talking about God?" This, it seems, is simply a communication of faith without content, a vague "faith in faith" that's easier than actually fleshing out a character's spirituality. The conventional wisdom on Serenity would probably conclude that this line shows boneheadedness about religion and nothing more—but the conventional wisdom takes the quote out of its context. Moments before, Mal had been expressing apparent regret at not abandoning River to the government:

Mal: I could have left her there. I had an out. Hell, I had every reason in the 'verse to leave her lay and haul anchor.

Book: It's not your way.

Mal: I have a way? That better than a plan?

Book's pronouncement that Mal needs belief to get him through immediately follows this exchange, and depends on it for its meaning. Because Book is a preacher, Mal assumes he's talking about belief in God, but he's talking about belief in community. Mal's "way" is not to abandon those in need, to help those who need helping, to do, in the mold of classic Western morality, the noble thing rather than the rational thing. Serenity is a story about a family, a community that stands together when oppressed. At the film's close, Mal gives River advice on flying a ship that sums up the object of the film's concept of "belief":

Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take a boat in the air that you don't love, she'll throw you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she ought to fall down, tells you she's hurting before she keels, makes her a home.

Faith doesn't stand for itself alone in Serenity. It is the first step in the progression Paul defines is 1 Corinthians 13:13: "Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love." Firefly and Serenity tell a story about a community, a family that holds together against all odds by the strength of its love.

Comments

Mmmm. I'm not convinced. While I agree totally that FIREFLY ranks right up there, and it was a grave, grave loss to SF artistically that the show was cancelled (oh, hang on, my head almost just exploded--AGAIN--typing that!)--I do think Joss tends to be dismissive and relativistic in this area. Religion was a "side dish' rarely served in Buffy (just the accoutrements, than you, unless it was Wicca), and religion is pretty useless in Firefly. No real commitment to a religion, no real idea of ireasonableness. That comes from a worldview, and its Whedon's.

However, the very fact that Book was a steady, likable presence (except for the thoughts River rad in his head, which seemed hard and mean and not like him), and that he at least was a religious presence, okay, better than nothing, I say. :) I'll take a decent religious character who reads Scripture and tried to do good and offer kindness over no or a stereotypical evil one.

I don't think the Mormon's complaint was that far off the mark, and I think you make too much of an apologia for the show. And I say that as a big fan of the series and the film and possessor of DVDs of them all and a woman with a raging crush on the Cap'n and most things Whedon. :)

When you are talking to someone who doesn't believe in any God you have to start somewhere, and that is learning to believe in a power higher than yourself. I think that is what Book was trying to say here.

It's not just that Mal doesn't believe in God--Mal has abandoned God because he believes that God has abandoned him--remember the opening scene in the first episode of Firefly, when during the battle, he takes the cross he wears around his neck and kisses it (very similar to medieval soldiers behavior)...and how he refers to the expected air support as "angels"...and the look of disbelief and disillusion when he hears that the angels--and the higher authority they represent--are in fact not coming.

So he has lost his belief...this kind of thing has happened countless times throughout human history. Some people, brought to this level, stay there...others work their way back to a belief in and relationship with the Almighty.

Book clearly thinks that Mal is capbable of that.

I have to think this is a much more serious portrayal of faith than is typically seen on television, and hats off to Mr. Whedon, an avowed atheist, for bringing it to us.

I never got the sense that Mal doesn't believe in God. Yeah, he makes a show of saying he doesn't. But methinks he doth protest too much. He was obviously religious prior to the defeat of the Independents. I think mostly he's just angry with God and disappointed in him. Perhaps Mal has lost his belief in God, or perhaps he would have found some way of believing again.

Still, Book's pronouncements are a bit weak for someone who does have faith. Whedon's never been strong on this: the trappings of faith are present in his work, but there is never a character whose faith is authentic and who lets it speak for itself. But that's not really a knock on Whedon, since the same can be said about television broadly. So, yeah, it's better than nothing.

It would have been nice, though, for Book to offer Mal something other than typical postmodern "just believe" stuff. What Book tells Mal could be found in any self-help book. It's not really faith at all. It would have added more to the show, I think, to make Book's faith more traditional and authentic, if only to act as a more effective foil to Mal's irreligion.

I never got the sense that Mal doesn't believe in God. Yeah, he makes a show of saying he doesn't. But methinks he doth protest too much. He was obviously religious prior to the defeat of the Independents. I think mostly he's just angry with God and disappointed in him. Perhaps Mal has lost his belief in God, or perhaps he would have found some way of believing again.

Still, Book's pronouncements are a bit weak for someone who does have faith. Whedon's never been strong on this: the trappings of faith are present in his work, but there is never a character whose faith is authentic and who lets it speak for itself. But that's not really a knock on Whedon, since the same can be said about television broadly. So, yeah, it's better than nothing.

It would have been nice, though, for Book to offer Mal something other than typical postmodern "just believe" stuff. What Book tells Mal could be found in any self-help book. It's not really faith at all. It would have added more to the show, I think, to make Book's faith more traditional and authentic, if only to act as a more effective foil to Mal's irreligion.

It's also important to remember that Book's past is every bit as complicated as Mal's. They never fully explored it, sadly-- my guess is it was on the slate for season 3, had the show gone that far-- but Book had a military background, and the movie strongly implies that he was an Operative prior to becoming a preacher. There's a lot of guilt in Book's past, and that informs his faith. I think he sees Mal as "the road not taken"-- anger with the world's violence instead of contemplation of it.

Most people misunderstand the context and meaning of Firefly, and Serenity... the sole premise.

The context is loss of freedom, loss of choice, and loss of identity. That's what happened to Mal once he lost the war.

Serenity is one of the ways to stay free in the Universe that is now ruled by a tyrannical military dictatorship that is claiming to be a "free democracy".

Each person on the Serenity wants something that they can't get on land - Freedom in a true sense of it. Freedom to believe and to live as they choose to.

Shepherd Book in that sense is a true Christian, because he does not go beating people over the head with dogma... I.E. "God's way, or the highway". He explains these in the language that people he addresses can understand... something that Christians today completely fail to do by using the romanticized version of Christianity with "Accepting Jesus into your heart" and etc. It completely lacks practical and relative perspective.

I do tend to think that Mal does believe in God, although, like Jonah, he feels cheated. He does not understand how injustice can rule the universe that just God created. TBC

Yes, it's a good show-- and that means that people think about what the characters think, say, and do. Religion is one of the things they think, talk, and act about. Hence, this. I don't see anyone here complaining that the show doesn't "bow to [their] faith", just trying to make sense of the role of religion in the show on its own terms and in connection to real-world faith and religion.

You're contradicting yourself. Leaving aside the fact that faith and reason are not, in fact, opposed (that's a very recent fallacy), you're making a broad criticism and then telling others not to criticize.